The Dispatch E-Edition

All current subscribers have full access to Digital D, which includes the E-Edition and
unlimited premium content on Dispatch.com, BuckeyeXtra.com, BlueJacketsXtra.com and
DispatchPolitics.com.
Subscribe
today!

More Articles

Utility companies would be able to charge consumers for cleanup costs at long-abandoned
natural-gas plants, according to an Ohio House proposal that opponents say could create a precedent
for covering other cleanup projects.

The companies say costs would be reasonable and subject to regulators’ oversight. The known
costs are about $80 million for projects by Duke Energy and Columbia Gas of Ohio. Several other
utilities do not have cost estimates.

The plan has been inserted into House Bill 483, a wide-ranging budget measure. It says that
customers would not be charged interest for the cleanup projects, and that customer payments would
be spread out over at least 10 years.

Proponents say the plan has a clear and narrow intent.

“Ohioans are going to benefit from the environmental improvements,” said Doug Colafella,
spokesman for Akron-based FirstEnergy.

The gas plants date to the 19th century, remnants of a time when utilities made natural gas from
coal and other fuels.

At first, the gas-plant provision was limited to natural-gas utilities, but lawmakers voted
yesterday to broaden the proposal to include electricity utilities that might also be liable for
gas-plant cleanup expenses.

“Customers shouldn’t be on the hook for bad business decisions of utilities,” said Dave
Rinebolt, executive director of Ohio Partners for Affordable Energy, an advocate for low-income
customers. The bad decisions were to pollute the sites or to buy property that had been polluted by
other utilities, he said.

Sam Randazzo, an attorney for Industrial Energy Users-Ohio, said the measure is “a one-way
street in the wrong direction from the customers’ perspective.”

The opponents say the issue goes beyond gas plants. They warn that the proposal is a broad shift
in liability that could be extended to more-costly issues, such as future cleanup of coal-ash ponds
and coal-fired power plants.

Colafella said opponents’ arguments are “just hyperbole.”

This is a not a new issue. Natural-gas utilities got something similar inserted into a budget
bill last year, but Gov. John Kasich used his line-item veto to remove it because of concerns that
it was written more broadly than lawmakers had intended.

Kasich resumed discussion on the issue when he included it in his recent budget plan. His
version did not include the electricity utilities.

Columbia Gas of Ohio has the most sites with 16, which it estimates will have cleanup costs of
$28 million. Two of the former plants are in Columbus, but specific locations were not
available.

The state’s two largest electric companies, American Electric Power and FirstEnergy, say they
each have 11 sites. They do not have estimates of cleanup costs.

One of the AEP sites is now a Downtown Columbus parking lot at the northeast corner of Marconi
Boulevard and W. Long Street, across the street from AEP’s headquarters.

Duke Energy, which has a gas and electricity utility in the Cincinnati area, has listed two
sites. The company has taken the lead on this issue because it has in Cincinnati what is likely the
largest site.

Last year, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio said Duke can charge customers $55 million
for the cleanup. That was an exception to a long-standing rule that a utility asset must still be
usable to be eligible for such reimbursement.

The legislative proposal would allow the exception to apply to all plants for producing natural
gas and for all gas and electric companies.

Under the proposal, environmental remediation plans still would be subject to review and
approval by the PUCO. The difference is that the PUCO would now be using a standard that more
easily allows for customers to be charged.